Anna Fedorova presents the late keyboard works of Brahms. 'These works feel as if he is speaking to us in a more private voice than ever before. The music is deeply personal, full of tenderness, nostalgia, love, and quiet reflection' says Fedorova. 'His lifelong bond with Clara Schumann remained a central part of his inner world. She was among the first to see these manuscripts, and her presence seems to quietly accompany them.' Op. 117 are three sets of melodies without words. Of Op. 118, Clara wrote: 'It is simply marvellous how your inner self seems to bubble, shine and whisper, constantly imbued with the grandeur and depth of your ideas!' With Op. 119, the keyboard seems once again to contain an entire orchestra, just like the early works that the young Brahms had presented to Robert Schumann forty years earlier.

Ivan Fischer and Channel Classics release a recording of Mozart's Don Giovanni with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Recorded live in October 2025 at the spectacular Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, this is the first volume of a Mozart trilogy, with The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro to follow in the coming years. With a dream duo (Andre Schuen as Don Giovanni and Luca Pisaroni as Leporello) and a first-rate cast, Ivan Fischer presents his vision of Mozart's masterpiece: 'In a nutshell the first two bars of this opera describe the story: the fight between order and rebellion. The basses repeat their constant bottom note three times, finally overpowering the revolutionary syncopations of the violins. The energetic, defiant violin notes represent Don Giovanni, the man, who doesn't accept any rules, who doesn't know limits. He follows his own instincts, uses and misuses his power, his wealth, his servant, to follow one goal only: his passion. On this journey he kills, he hurts, damages others, without any remorse or even second thoughts. He is perfectly free, happy, liberated from inner doubts and outer control, from all the regulations of what we call morality.'

The music on this album grew from the idea for a new song cycle in which women-so often silent in history and mythology-were to speak for themselves and in which all material would be created and performed by women. The Ragazze Quartet found a true kindred spirit in soprano Katharine Dain. A remarkable group of female composers and librettists also joined the project entitled They Have Waited Long Enough, each contributing in their own unique and personal way. The result is a rich and diverse collage of songs by Aftab Darvishi, Annelies van Parys, Calliope Tsoupaki, Aida Shirazi, and Saskia Venegas Aernouts. What unites them is the urgency that resonates throughout: it is important-if not essential-that these stories are recorded and heard. The fact that these stories are historical or mythological does not make them any less relevant today. The female perspective carries just as much weight as the male one-and deserves to be remembered. In addition to soprano Katharine Dain, the Ragazze Quartet is joined by Raphaela Danksagmüller (duduk), Anna voor de Wind (clarinet), Osama Abdulrasol (qanun), Elif Canfezâ Gündüz (kemenche), Marianna Soroka (percussion), and Agata Kruszewska (percussion).

The Canadian-American cellist Elinor Frey performs and conducts Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's three cello concertos with the Accademia de' Dissonanti. These dramatic works, rich in turbulent exchanges yet also in tender moments, bear witness to C. P. E. Bach's fiery imagination, where emotion and melody take precedence. In Bach's time, personalising a performance was both common and expected. The question of 'how a cellist premiering these works would have approached these concertos' lies at the heart of this recording. Drawing on a vocabulary of ornamentation and melodic analysis derived from the music of the composer and his contemporaries, Frey has reconstructed the social milieu and instrumental practice of Bach's time, in order to approach the way in which this music was once heard and felt.

Violinist Ning Feng performs the Complete Mozart Violin Concertos with the Kammerakademie Potsdam on Channel Classics Records. These 5 concertos were written because Mozart's father, Leopold, was frustrated at the thought of Wolfgang, on his travels, neglecting the violin as a possible source of income, as Mozart could himself play the violin beautifully, and he wrote brilliantly for the instrument. Composed mainly in 1775, these concertos display the theatrical twists and turns that were by now second nature to the 19-year-old composer, with his thoughts and dreams perpetually fixed on opera and the drama.

South African/Dutch clarinettist Maria du Toit and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Arjan Tien release 'Clarinet Colours' on Channel Classics. Exploring the contemporary clarinet repertoire of South African composers reveals a sound world of striking colour and contrast. Often described as the "Rainbow Nation," South Africa embodies a complex tapestry of cultures, languages, and histories, bound together by resilience and renewal. This album mirrors that spirit, showcasing the clarinet's remarkable versatility while tracing a wide spectrum of expressive colour and energy. The concertos by leading South African composers David Earl, Roelof Temmingh and Conrad Asman were written for, or dedicated to Maria du Toit.

Ashley Solomon and Florilegium are joined by violinist Rachel Podger, soprano Elizabeth Watts, and recorder player Hannah Parry on Telemann: Ino Cantata and Double Concertos. Based on a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Telemann's Ino is a dramatic and theatrical cantata with a single soprano voice carrying the entire narrative. The two double concertos on this recording showcase Telemann's mastery of instrumental color and texture. His innovative and non-traditional approach to the standard concerto form can be seen in the five-movement structure of the concerto for flute and violin. The concerto for recorder and flute is one of his most popular instrumental works and is a wonderful example of his love for unusual instrumental combinations.

Sebastian Berner is one of the most prominent trumpet players of his generation: in 2022, he won first prize at the Maurice André International Competition in Paris and is principal trumpet of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. While Henri Tomasi's trumpet concerto, composed in 1948, is fairly well known, the Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra, composed in 1913 by the Belgian Joseph Jongen, is much rarer, and the concerto by his pupil Léon Stekke, dated July 1937, is being recorded for the first time. Another world premiere is Charles Koechlin's Chants de Kervéléan, transcribed in 2008 for trumpet and orchestra by Robert Orlidge. Finally, Florent Schmitt's Suite in Three Parts was premiered in it's orchestral version in 1956 by Maurice André.

The Camerata Salzburg begins a collaboration with Channel Classics and, with it's leader Giovanni Guzzo, presents it's first recording entitled Muses. The album includes three neoclassical masterpieces for chamber orchestra by Igor Stravinsky. The Concerto in E-flat "Dumbarton Oaks" is a small concerto in the style of the Brandenburg Concertos. Apollon musagète pays homage to Apollo, and to the Muses of mime, poetry and dance, with beautiful, harmonically pure and melodically perfect music. The Concerto in D employs every conceivable kind of string sound and technique, creating a combination of pure melodic and rhythmic drive and wonderful cantabile passages. In these three works, Camerata Salzburg delves deeply into sound, a quest made possible by each musician's individual commitment to the ensemble, uniting the muses of chamber music, concert and orchestra.

Dutch cellist Lidy Blijdorp and pianist Tobias Borsboom, delve into the world of the Société Nationale de Musique in this programme of late-romantic and early modern French chamber music. César Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano was transcribed, with the composer's approval, by Jules Delsart, Nadia Boulanger's Trois Pièces for cello and piano date from 1914, these lyrical and playfully virtuosic works are proof of the master pedagogue's extraordinary talent for composition. Debussy's Sonata for Cello and Piano conjures up images of nocturnal encounters, in a form and proportions that are almost classical, a performance of this Sonata in Amsterdam in 1918 after Debussy's death, inspired Dutch composer Matthijs Vermeulen to write a cello sonata of his own. Shortly after, Vermeulen moved to France, where he would work as a journalist and keep composing until after the Second World War, with seven symphonies and a wide array of chamber music works to his name, Blijdorp and Borsboom present Vermeulen's Sonate pour violoncelle et piano here.

On Spiegel i'm Spiegel, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Candida Thompson, Martina Batic, Hülya Keser and Tim Posner, perform a program of Baltic and English compositions, wherein space and time blur. The title of this album is from Arvo Pärt's meditative work of the same name, Spiegel i'm Spiegel, which is performed in two separate versions bookending the album, embracing the concept of the mirror. Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis mirrors the Renaissance in the 20th century, works by Estonian composers Veljo Tormis and Lepo Sumera have yet another spiritual essence, as shamanistic primal cries resound in Tormis' epic choir work Curse upon Iron, Latvian composer Peteris Vasks' Plainscapes evokes the vast expanses of the Baltic plains.

Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova's new release, Liberte, is a cultural and musical dialogue between France and America. The influence of jazz plays a central role in this tribute to French and American composers whose work transcends genres and borders. Performed together with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon under Pablo Gonzalez, the album's core pillars are Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Also featured are short solo pieces that echo it's central themes: three miniatures by Germaine Tailleferre, Time Peace, a miniature by Andrew Blickenderfer, and the jazzy Valse from Partita No. 5 by Fedorova's compatriot Myroslav Skoryk. Two French chansons round out Liberte, an album where freedom, jazz, and the shared spirit of France and America meet in music.

Ning Feng, together with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin conducted by Antony Hermus, releases the violin concertos of Johannes Brahms and Carl Goldmark. This pairing is particularly apt as these works were both written in 1877, and the composers were dear friends. In Goldmark's lyrical Violin Concerto, Ning Feng plays the original 5-minute cadenza which is seldom heard in it's entirety. Written only a few months after the Goldmark, Brahms' famous Violin Concerto in D, Op.77 needs little introduction. Ning Feng has long been associated with this concerto, having played it when he won First Prize in the International Paganini Competition 2006 as well as First Prize in the 2005 Michael Hill International Violin Competition.

Conductor and composer Jorg Widmann leads the Stuttgarter Kammerochester in this album of masterpieces for string orchestra. The precocious Mendelssohn is represented with his String Symphony No.10 in B minor. It consists of a single movement, in which a sweeping slow introduction is followed by an allegro and coda. Widmann's own Ikarische Klage takes it's subject matter from a poem by Baudelaire: "Burnt by the love of beauty / I will not have the sublime honour / of giving my name to the abyss / that will serve as my grave". On Korngold's Symphonic Serenade, Widmann says "What a piece, full of glittering magic!". In this work we hear dreams of a real or imaginary Vienna in the time of Mahler or Berg: a vision that looks to the future, is heart-rending but never sentimental.

French-Hungarian pianist Suzana Bartal joins Sebastien Rouland and the Saarlandische Staatsorchester in this release of two warhorses of the Romantic repertoire, Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor and Camille Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor. Although not successful at it's premiere with the composer at the piano, Saint-Saens' 2nd went on to be beloved by the public, and is probably the most played of his 5 concertos for piano. Very few pieces of music are as iconic as the only concerto Grieg ever completed: his famous Piano Concerto in A minor. Liszt famously sight read and lavished praise on it when it was written in 1870, and it has been a perennial favourite since then.

Soprano Rowan Pierce joins Florilegium and Ashley Solomon in Tra le fiamme - a new recording of secular cantatas by G. F. Handel and J. S. Bach. Tra le fiamme is one of Handel's Italian style cantatas, combining vocal virtuosity with deep emotional expressivity. Bach's cantata Ich bin in mir vergnugt is an elegant example of one of his secular cantatas. This cantata stands out for it's reflective exploration of themes of inner peace, contentment, and stoic philosophy - qualities that reflect Bach's interest in moral and philosophical themes outside of his sacred music. Also included here is the final virtuosic Alleluia from Vivaldi's motet In furore iustissimae irae together with instrumental concertos by Vivaldi and Handel.

Three years after their album of works by J.S. Bach (FUG 792), flautist Toshiyuki Shibata and keyboard player Anthony Romaniuk now record works not only by Bach but also by his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann, "the most original and innovative" of the lineage, according to Shibata. Both musicians were trained in historically informed interpretation in Belgium and admit their fascination for Art Nouveau, stating that it harmoniously combines tradition and innovation; they have also been influenced by other musical traditions, including jazz and contemporary music: "Preludes and improvisation were essential elements of music-making in the 18th century - for us it's natural to add preludes and postludes to our performances," says Shibata, who plays three traversos, copies of instruments by after Buffardin, Eigentopf and Quantz; Romaniuk plays a Flemish harpsichord and a Silbermann fortepiano. Their programme includes improvised preludes, a bold ending to BWV 1032/I and an original extra movement - a Gigue from BWV 997 with influences from several genres woven into it's bass line, honouring both tradition and invention.

Following up her critically acclaimed recording of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's Rosary Sonatas (CCSSA37315), violinist and musical director Rachel Podger leads Brecon Baroque on Just Biber, an album of Sonatas from Biber's 1681 collection Sonatae Violino Solo and his theatrical Sonata Representivo. These works are extremely virtuosic with extensive multiple stopping and dazzling passages of stylus fantasticus. In Biber's time, harmony was something cosmic, vibrating in a God-given resonance between human, instrumental and celestial bodies. Dedicated to Archbishop Maximilian Gandolf, the sonatas were not only designed to delight, but also potentially to balm and heal; Biber described the sonatas as a kind of prayer for the Archbishop's longevity and good health.

Baroque ensemble Camerata oresund and their musical director / violinist Peter Spissky explore the musical world of composer, instrumentalist, and patron of the arts, Wilhelmine von Bayreuth (1709-1758). The recording brings to light works by Wilhelmine herself and musicians from within her circle, as we rediscover several long-forgotten pieces. Wilhelmine's entrepreneurial spirit, intellect, talent, and deep love of music and the arts remain an enduring source of inspiration. This album is a tribute to the life and legacy of this remarkable woman of the arts, revealing vibrant musical colours and styles in these concertos, dances, and arias.

Celebrated violinists Maria Milstein and Mathieu van Bellen pair Bela Bartok's 44 Duos for Two Violins with Luciano Berio's 34 Duetti per Due Violini. Bartok's miniature masterpieces have inspired and delighted countless young musicians. Although written for children, these duos are far from childlike: original harmonies, striking dissonances and lively rhythms are employed to create music with emotional depth, some being profoundly tragic, others fierce, lyrical, wild or fiery. Few works capture the vitality of folk music as vividly as these. Like Bartok, Berio composed his 'Duetti' as teaching pieces, dedicating each of the 34 duos to a friend, colleague or composer, beginning with Bela, an homage to Bartok. The pieces offer a kaleidoscope of styles, reflecting Berio's personal connections with the dedicatees.

'If you want to know who, for me, is the greatest living composer, I'll tell you without hesitation - it's Elgar, whom I place on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms!' So said the great virtuoso Kreisler.' Nicolas Dautricourt continues: 'This Concerto, with it's unbridled lyricism and unique proportions, is an Everest for any violinist.' In this, his first recording for Channel Classics, the French violinist brings together three works by two English composers. In 1888, in the same year Elgar wrote the famous Salut d'amour for his fiancee Caroline Alice Roberts, Frederick Delius composed his Suite for Violin and Orchestra, one of his very first works. The Suite, which only received it's premiere in 1984, is heard here in this insightful arrangement by Frederic Chaslin for violin, piano and string quartet.

Born in Mexico City, violist Dana Zemtsov has always retained a deep love for the colourful Latin-American culture. The discovery of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book One Hundred Years of Solitude, in which the vivid literary images of clouds of yellow butterflies precede a forbidden lover's arrival, inspired Dana to revisit her earliest musical memories. This led to a unique project embodying the most characteristic expression of love in Latin-American culture: the beautiful boleros presented on this album entitled Yellow Butterfly. They are so well known that practically every Spanish-speaking person can sing them by heart. With arrangements by the legendary Joan Albert Amargos and Claudio Constantini, the recording conjures the surreal atmosphere of the Americas: melancholy, roughness, poetry, vitality and joy. These 'recomposed' boleros were arranged for solo viola and a small ensemble that consists of pianist Anna Fedorova, trumpeter Angelo Verploegen, bandoneonist Claudio Constantini, double bassist Nicholas Schwartz and percussionist Andre Groen.

The Orchestre National de Lyon and it's new musical director Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider have embarked on a collaboration with Channel Classics, which will involve several recordings combining the great works of the repertoire with lesser-known pieces. Recognised as one of the pre-eminent violinists of our time, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider has developed an international career as a conductor, now leading some of the world's greatest orchestras. On this album, Strauss & Ibert, violist Amihai Grosz and cellist Jian Wang take on the musical roles of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote in Strauss's virtuoso tone poem Don Quixote. The symphonic suite from Jaques Ibert's Le chevalier errant also depicts moments from Cervantes' Don Quixote, replete with scenes from the knight's adventures including the famous battle in The Windmills, the Dance of the Galley Slaves and various dances including a flamenco.

On She / Her, South African clarinetist Maria du Toit and Dutch pianist Vera Kooper explore music from around the world, exclusively written by women. The pieces performed here are rarely played, and for about half of them this is the world-premiere recording. Although some of these composers enjoyed popularity during their lifetimes, such as Ivy Priaulx Rainier, with the passage of time, their music vanished into near oblivion. Rainer's exhilarating and at times meditative Suite is the centre of this album. With compositions ranging from 19th-century France to present day Nigeria, the exploration of this obscure repertoire became a mission - to celebrate and appreciate the music of talented and neglected female composers and bring these wonderful pieces to life again.

This boxed set brings together all the recordings that cellist Pieter Wispelwey (a disciple of Dicky Boeke and Anner Bylsma) made for Channel Classics between 1990 and 2009: 35 recordings in 20 years and an impressive diversity of repertoire. The great masterpieces of the solo repertoire, from the Bach Suites, recorded twice - an essential reference! - to those of Britten, not forgetting Reger, Kodaly, Crumb, Hindemith and Gubaidoulina, alongside all the great concertos (Haydn, Dvorak, Schumann, Elgar, Schumann, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Lutoslawski) and also a magnificent anthology of chamber music, including sumptuous Beethoven and Brahms ensembles. This anthology also allows us to appreciate the Dutch cellist's taste for instruments, on the one hand, and to rediscover his collaborations year after year with a few well-chosen partners, such as Paul Komen, Paolo Giacometti, Dejan Lazic, and the conductor Ivan Fischer, on the other.

On the 1710 Stradivarius known as the "Vieuxtemps, Hauser", violinist Ning Feng plays two monumental Russian violin concertos with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tung-Chieh Chuang. In the First Violin Concertos of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, the soloist is confronted with technical acrobatics and many contrasting moods, all of which Ning Feng navigates expertly and interprets in such a way that "the more you listen, the more you want to listen", as Gramophone put it.

Robert Schumann called Mendelssohn the Mozart of the 19th century given his mastery of both the keyboard and composition at such an early age. On "Wunderkind Felix" conductor Patrick van der Linden and Ars Musica pay tribute to the precocious work of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy with this album of pieces the young master wrote between the ages of 14 and 19. Ars Musica presents a reorchestration of the 1st Symphony for chamber orchestra which explores the flexible orchestral settings of Mendelssohn's youthful compositions. This is paired with the equally youthful String Symphony No.10 and his Kyrie, which is performed by the Ars Musica Chorus and Orchestra. Soprano Nanette Mans and the Ars Musica Chorus join the orchestra to perform the Cantata 'Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten' and his setting of Ave maris stella, both written in 1828 when he was a mere 19 years old.

Dutch violinist Niek Baar joins the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under the direction of Christoph Poppen to perform two classic violin concertos from the mid-19th century: Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor and Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor. Both of these violin concertos were written for the legendary Joseph Joachim, who had a hand in shaping the final form of both pieces, although ultimately his changes to the Schumann were rejected by the composer. The highly original, introverted and melancholic concerto is a moving self-portrait of the 43-year-old Schumann a few years before his death, and Bruch's No. 1 is one of the most beloved concertos of the entire repertoire.

Anna Fedorova explores the Intrigues of the Darkness in these programmatic and extremely virtuosic works for solo piano. The journey from darkness to light begins with Scriabin's terrifying "Black Mass" Sonata. The work represents a satanic ritual that is possessed by the spectre of the Mephistophelian Liszt. de Falla's Suite from El Amor brujo conjures a mysterious world, full of magic, rituals and ghost visitations. Ravel described his Gaspard de la nuit as "romantic and of transcendent virtuosity". These highly evocative pieces are based on Aloysius Bertrand's prose poems depicting scenes of a hanged man sighing on the gallows and a devilish dwarf. Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition portrays many scenes of darkness but emerges into light with the Great Gate of Kiev, in which triumphant episodes alternate with moments of religious contemplation.

Award-winning Baroque violinist Rachel Podger takes the resurgence of the Arts in England post -1660 as the compelling inspiration for her new album, The Muses Restor’d. Adopting its title as its theme, Rachel and her vivacious Brecon Baroque take the listener on a journey of captivating violinled chamber music from Jacobean to Early Georgian England. Ranging from the gentle intimacy of consort idioms to the full-blown instrumental virtuosity of the evolving Baroque period, this album uncovers little known glories of English instrumental music and its influences. This refined and intimately chiselled chamber music celebrates a rich tradition where the violin joins a plethora of keyboards, lutes, viol and continuo cello reinstating these sonatas, fantasies, suites, grounds and popular tunes to the mainstream of English cultural life of the time. Together with four musicians from Brecon Baroque, Rachel Podger performs works by Handel, Lawes, Blow, Locke, Purcell, Schop, Jenkins, Baltzar and Jones.

“This oeuvre provides a deeply satisfying kaleidoscope of musical expression over a century of British
musical life."
- Rachel Podger